Nigerians Data and Airtime spending has hit N2.6tn  in nine months

NIGERIA, Nov. 28 – The amount spent by Nigerians on airtime for voice call and data subscription through telecom companies increased to at least N2.59tn from the first to the third quarters of 2023.

This report is according to the financial statements of MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa. The dada shows increase from the N1.95tn both telcos recorded from data subscription and voice call airtime representing 32.57% increase from both sources in the corresponding period of 2022.

On Airtel’s part, the increase in voice and data revenue was partially driven by rising data subscriptions and the devaluation of the naira. Between the first and third quarters (i.e. the first nine months) of 2022, Airtel made $1.41bn from voice call airtime and data. Which is equivalent to N647.71bn, using the exchange rate of N461/$ which was the official rate at the time.

While comparing to the same period of 2023, the company’s revenue from these two sources of income amounted to $1.29bn. Which is equivalent to N1.003tn when converted at the exchange rate of N777/$ at the time.

On the other hand, MTN growing revenue from data subscription continue to boost the company’s overall revenue increase. Revenues from Data  increased by 36.36 % year-on-year, while revenues from voice call only grew by 10.64 %, showing an increase in internet usage of the in Nigeria.

Biztv24 source gathered that while commenting on this superb growth, MTN said, “Data revenue grew by 36.4% on increased usage and data conversion in new and existing base.”

The South African owned company stated that data usage on its network grew by 29.1 % in the period under review.  “Data usage (GB per user) grew by 29.1 % to 8.6GB, and the number of smartphones on our network increased by 7.6 %, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4 %, up 1.4pp YoY.

“Consequently, we recorded a 46.3 % growth in data traffic, with the 4G network accounting for 83.7 per cent of the total traffic (up 5.2pp YoY),” the company noted.

While Airtel recorded growth in data usage per customer to 5.9 GB per month. They stated, “Data revenue grew by 29.3 % in constant currency, driven by data customer base growth of 17.4 % and data ARPU growth of 12.3 %.

“Data usage per customer increased by 23.8 per cent to 5.9 GB per month (from 4.8 GB in the prior period). Our continued 4G network rollout has resulted in nearly 100 % of all our sites delivering 4G services.”

The increase in Internet usage was due to  increase in video streaming which resulted in increase in the amount telecom consumers spent on telecom services to N3.86tn in 2022. This represent an increase of 18.74 % from the N3.25tn that was spent in 2021. Data usage in Nigeria surged by 46.77 % to 518,381.78TB in 2022 from 353,118.89TB in 2021.

It has been predicted that data consumption will be the next frontier for telecoms growth and is expected to continue to surge. Several analyst are of the opinion that data revenues will outpace voice revenues in the coming years. The World Bank recently revealed that increases in the consumption of data services by households and businesses and higher subscriber numbers were responsible for growth in the ICT sector.

In a report by the Swedish owned Ericsson Mobility (June 2023), the company stated, “Sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to be the region with the highest growth in total mobile data traffic, rising by 37 % annually between 2022 and 2028 as service providers across the continent continue to invest in 4G networks and migrate customers from 2G and 3G.

“This increase in data traffic will primarily be driven by a four times increase in smartphone traffic in the period, with average data per active smartphone settling at 19 GB per month in 2028.”

Recently, Adeolu Ogunbanjo who is the President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers,  told The PUNCH, “2021 led to a blast in online activity. Working from home, an increase in online economic and commercial transactions which were all on telecoms infrastructure. This growth was meant to be. 2021 propelled the uptake in online activities as people had to use their devices online.”

The growth in the Data usage in Nigeria may likely surged more than predicted when super fast internet services like Elon Musk’s Starlink and even Amazon’s Kuiper will be fully deployed in the country and subsequent expansion of 5G coverage across the Nation.